Heir To My World
by Lady Blackmour
Summary: Sephiroth is called to the Destiny Islands at Kingdom Hearts' demand. He's never met this Riku before, so why does he feel a connection to him? Why is he forced to live as a human? And most of all, who is this woman who seems to know him? REWRITTEN.


A/N: A lot has changed since I started writing Heir to My World the first time around: for one, we have two more games to tell the story of Riku, Sora, and maybe even Sephiroth. For another, I've grown older, changed my view on writing and other things. Finally, I no longer have a co-author. Having waited, and thought, for a long time, I hope to write this story entirely from scratch. The basic tale will be the same, of course, but told differently, hopefully better, and no longer quite so AU. ^_^ So here it is. I hope you will enjoy it. I apologize for the shortness of the prologue, but as I am now writing the first chapter, hopefully you will not have too long to wait. O_o I know I've said that before. Please forgive me.

Heir to My World

Lady Blackmour

_Prologue_

"_This is the beat that my heart skipped when we first met  
Now that I've heard it, it leaves me with a kind of regret  
No disrespect  
We just left a lot of people upset  
And what we had wasn't really what we'd come to expect."_

_-"The Beat That My Heart Skipped" by dan le sac vs. Scroobius Pip_

"Sephiroth."

It wasn't that he heard his name, per se. In that moment before he was called, he didn't really exist in the human sense of the word. But the call was there anyway, impossible to ignore, and so he awoke, and followed the call.

There, at the center of all worlds, the first of all worlds, both place and deity, Kingdom Hearts, he found a door. Confused, and somewhat furstrated, he called the door to open. When it would not respond to his command, he understood that he was required to take a solid form, and so in front of the door, a man appeared, one with silver hair, glowing eyes of the most intense blue-green. Though exotic, he could have been considered human, had it not been for the five wings that sprung from his back. And yet, in a very ordinary way, he reached out one black gloved hand, and opened the door.

The form that Kingdom Hearts showed him in this instance was very ordinary as well. He found himself in a sitting room, in a very comfortable apartment like any human might keep. In one of the chairs was a young woman in blue. She smiled at him. He realised with some surprise that she was the source of the call.

"Sephiroth," she said. "Please, will you sit and talk with me?"

"I prefer to stand, if you don't mind." He was always as civil as could be, but in this form, sitting was rather uncomfortable. He fluttered the lowest pair of wings in explantation.

"Ah, of course," the woman nodded. "Forgive me." There appeared a stool, and she gestured toward it. "If you feel so inclined, perhaps that will be more comfortable." He didn't move, and she didn't seem bothered, but continued speaking. "Thank you for coming, Arbiter. I am speaking, as you may have guessed, on behalf of Kingdom Hearts. My name is Rinoa."

"You are human," Sephrioth observed.

She nodded, her smile turning a bit sad, by his estimation. "I am. Or was, at any rate. When the Heartless were released on the worlds, my world was not spared. My friends were taken into darkness, their bodies dissolved. They have yet to be restored. I was a sorceress on my world, and it was only my strong ties to magic that allowed me to exist in some form. Though my world remains fragmented, and I have been unable to return, I have tried to help in any way I can from here. Thus, I have a mission for you, Arbiter. It is the wish of Kingdom Hearts."

Rinoa stood, walking to a video screen mounted on one of the walls. She touched it, and an image appeared, a chain of islands in the middle of a turquoise sea. "There is a world born of the innocence of children, called the Destiny Islands. On these islands, there will be two boys who are familiar to you." The image changed, to that of two human children, both on the brink of adulthood. Their backs were to him, and although Sephiroth thought he did recognise the spiky brown hair on the first, it was the other who seemed to call to him. He was much taller, and his long hair was strangely light. Rinoa continued. "One, you have encountered before, but the other has a connection to you that is unbreakable, old as time. Find the second boy."

Sephiroth waited. "…And?" he finally prompted. Rinoa grinned. She broke her connection with the screen, and it went dark.

"And that's it," she smiled, flopping on the couch with a bounce. All of her formality seemed to have disappeared. "You'll have to figure the rest out once you get there."

Sephrioth was extremely put out. "That is all I am given? Is there a conflict of some sort?"

Rinoa shook her head. "I can't give you any more information than that. I think things will become apparent once you're there." She sobered suddenly. "Sephiroth. Some things are more precious than others, and sometimes that which we lose can be restored to us. When these opportunities present themselves, you must be certain not to let them pass you by."

He looked at her strangely. "I am the Arbiter. I do not have human ties or connections. Material things are meaningless."

"Now, perhaps, but what about before?"

Before? He snorted. There was no before….was there?

Rinoa was smiling again. "Never mind. Go on now. Best to get this done as quickly as possible."


End file.
